Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I agree this issue must be looked at. It is very tricky. I come from a long tradition of modernists in this regard and I am often criticised for example for spelling my name "Cuív" because people say there is no "v" in Irish. My view is that modern Irish has a "v". For example, in this House we regularly used the word "Vótáil". One could spell it "Bhótáil" but the sensible and modern thing to do is use the "v" instead.

Someone recently wrote to a newspaper criticising the use of "v" in Irish. I asked an Irish scholar who turned up an interesting piece. Apparently, my father was criticised many years ago for using "v" in his name. In his reply, he explained how the litriú simplí came about, because the "cónaighe" and all such forms which would be familiar to people at the beginning of the 20th century were causing chaos to learners. It was difficult to know how to pronounce a word such as "cónaighe" if one did not know the language. In his defence, my father pointed out how this came about, but also pointed out something more interesting. He noted that in the Annals of Inishfallen in 1259 there was a reference to "Corc mac Fínguni í Kymh d'éc Bennact era anmin", but the spelling for "Caoimh" was "Kymh". Some people who want me to go back to the older version think it is "Caoimh", but I am thinking of reverting to "Kymh".

See this speech in context